City comparison
Houston, TX is about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) from New Bedford, MA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 2,000 miles, or about 33 hours (about 3 days at 10 h/day) behind the wheel at highway speeds.
Driving distance is a rough estimate (great-circle × 1.25); driving time assumes a 60 mph blended average. Real trips run 10–20% longer with stops.
A direct flight from Houston, TX to New Bedford, MA takes about 3 h 11 min, covering roughly 1,600 miles in a straight line. Connecting itineraries with a layover typically add 1–3 hours.
Block-to-block estimate at ~500 mph cruise, including taxi, climb, and descent — what an airline would publish, not pure airborne time.
Houston, TX is on Central Time and New Bedford, MA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 1 p.m. in New Bedford, which puts Houston 1 hours behind.
Standard-time offsets. Daylight saving applies in both cities for most of the year (exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona), and the gap between the two stays the same.
Houston has a population of 2,296,253, vs 100,620 in New Bedford — about 22.8× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 20 sq mi for New Bedford.
Population from US Census ACS. Land area from the Census Gazetteer (city proper, excluding inland water).
Cost indices by category, with the US city average (100) marked.
Index: 100 = US city average. Lower is more affordable.
Side-by-side costs, salaries, and sub-category indices.
| Metric | Houston | New Bedford | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,026/mo | 20.4% higher in Houston |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $291,300 | 24.0% higher in New Bedford |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $54,604 | 10.7% higher in Houston |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 97.5 | 3.0% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 144.3 | 49.9% higher in New Bedford |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 101.7 | 6.2% higher in New Bedford |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 102.5 | 7.7% higher in New Bedford |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Houston, you'd need $104,992 in New Bedford to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 4.8% cheaper overall than New Bedford, MA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 2% higher in Houston than in New Bedford. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $83,994 in New Bedford to keep the same standard of living.